The title of today's piece is a take on a great poem by Maya Angelou, one of my favorite survivors. There are a lot of us out there--people who have survived one bad thing or another. For some of us, our entire existence has been plagued by difficulty. But despite all that, the nicest, happiest, friendliest people you'll ever meet are those of us who've been beaten up here and there. Do you know why? We've been humbled. And because of that humility, we are both eager and grateful to experience joy and help others do the same. That's the point of Angelou's poem--even a bird, vulnerable to the whims of her keeper and never free to use the wings God gave her, still sings the most beautiful songs.

We, the survivors, are the heroes of humanity's history. Often though, heroes are not appreciated. In fact, all too frequently, we are villified for our joy by those who could not make that same transformation of consciousness during one of life's many trials; who instead, choose misery, bitterness, becoming jaded--and in that state, dragging everyone else into the miserable mire with them.

Life is only as complex as we make it. More and more, the Buddhist's truth reflects the reality of humanity. We find things complicated when we must compromise--which is a constant in life. But it is only a constant because humanity insists on assuming a permanence that isn't real. We feel better for the fantasy of permanence, but because it's only an illusion, that comfort is often short-lived.

Understanding impermanence is part of what makes a survivor a survivor. We don't always accept it--because impermanence is quite hard to accept in that it means the death of all things. But it seems only those of us who have glimpsed that truth, through an application of wisdom and maturity in order to understand what we saw, are the ultimate beneficiaries. It may not seem that way to most people--how can you be the beneficiary of death? You are when you meet it and can still walk away recognizing the true meaning in life.

You might find this amusing but the true meaning in life is...death. We have a beginning and there will be an end--probably as messy and awful as our beginning. Being in the present moment is all any of us truly "have," at least, for that moment. And it's not depressing--it's freeing. The downside is that if you're one of the rare survivor's out there, you are, well, rare. Most people, even those closest to you, won't share your hard-earned perspective. More often than not, this may make you feel isolated or alone.

The problem with that isolation is that humans are made for companionship. You're not alone by choice; you're alone because others lack the sensitivity or compassion necessary to relate. And you can't explain it. If you feel like you have to, don't bother. Because if you have to explain, that person is already unable to understand. Frustrating, I know.

So not only do we survivor's have to survive terrible things, but when we come back from that trial changed--almost no one we knew before will understand or want to understand how or why. Soldiers have this issue often. Unless you lived through their experience, you can only relate to them based on your own limited, linear view...and frankly, it's never enough.

Humans are all connected. It doesn't always feel like it, but we are. We're connected through a shared history; we're connected through our planet; and according to people like Jung, we're connected through a shared collective unconscious.

The caged bird doesn't just sing because she's in the moment, despite her limitations--she still sings because it connects her to the rest of the world. Not even a cage, visible or o, can keep us from connecting...especially in 2010.

Thank God for philosophy...without it, we would all surely go mad. Until next time, dearest readers, until next time....

Dear Robert: You are not alone. I'm glad a piece I wrote six years ago can help a person like you reading it today. Thank you for leaving a comment. Sending you positive energy, luck, light, and peace for 2017 and beyond. Stay uplifted! You know you are getting close to a breakthrough when things get particularly difficult. I don't know you at all, but feel quite strongly that whatever you are struggling with is going to begin to resolve in 2017.

Best wishes,
Rebecca

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About the Author

Rebecca Housel, Ph.D., known as "The Pop Culture Professor" (TM), is an international best-selling author and editor in nine languages and 100 countries. Rebecca, listed in the Directory of American Poets & Writers for her work in nonfiction, was nominated by Prevention magazine essayist and best-selling author of The ImmortalLife of HenriettaLacks, Rebecca Skloot, to the National Association of Science Writers for her work on cancer. Rebecca has published with best-selling author of The Accidental Buddhist, Dinty Moore's literary nonfiction journal, Brevity, and with commercial publications like Redbook magazine and online journals like In Media Res. Her recent interviews appear in publications such as the LA Times, Esquire, USA TODAY, The Huffington Post, Inside HigherEd, Woman's World magazine, and Marie Claire as well as on FOX news, and NBC. Former President of the New York College English Association, Housel was a professor in both Atlanta and New York, teaching popular culture, film, creative writing, literature, and medical humanities. Dr. Housel currently works on the Editorial Advisory Boards for the Journal of PopularCulture and the Journal ofAmerican Culture; she has also worked as a reviewer for Syracuse University Press and Thomson Wadsworth. A writer of all genres, Housel has written and published both fiction and nonfiction in over ten books and 398 articles, essays, book chapters, book reviews, and encyclopedia entries.